Concept of the world’s quietest supersonic airplane

Concept of the world’s quietest supersonic airplane

March 27th, 2017

The American company Lockheed Martin is developing the supersonic passenger airliner QueSST, which will become much quieter than any existing aircraft.Supersonic aircraft is developed in the division Skunk Works company Lockheed Martin. The main task of designers working on the QueSST project is to prevent the emergence of shock waves that form a plane in flight at supersonic speed. Sharp pressure jumps are usually formed at the tip of the nose fairing, on the front and rear edges of the wing, at the front edges of the tail unit and at the edges of the air intakes.Shock waves are heard on the ground as quite loud claps due to a sharp increase in pressure at the front of the shock wave, with a sharp drop in pressure after it and subsequent normalization. The new aerodynamic design of the airliner, according to the plan of the developers, will generate waves with a more gradual pressure difference, which on the ground will be heard as cotton by the car door in the neighboring yard. A bold statement, is not it?To achieve a significant reduction in the intensity of the sound impact will be due to a significant lengthening of the fuselage, smoothing out the differences between the protruding elements and the use of additional aerodynamic elements. For example, the front horizontal plumage and additional horizontal plumage on the vertical keel, which will dissect the shock waves from the fuselage.

The world’s quietest supersonic aircraft will receive one engine, and the length of the aircraft will be 28.7 meters. Outwardly, it will resemble the legendary British-French Concorde. If the ideas of the designers are realized, the airliner will be allowed to supersonic flights over the settlements, which are prohibited today. In order to remove this limitation, the noise level should not exceed 75 decibels.The remaining technical details of the QueSST project are still kept secret. Next year Lockheed Martin should start assembling the first prototype, in 2019, provide it to NASA for expert evaluation, and in 2020 to perform the first flight tests. In case of successful completion of each stage in 2021 the final tests of the quietest aircraft will be carried out and soon it will be ready for operation. Concept the “transparent” aircraftConcept of the aircraft of the futureFuture tech